Life in Parallel
by TypewriterTardis
Summary: The Doctor left her there, alone. Well, not completely alone. Rose had the clone. And, as it turns out, that was enough for her. -Rose's life in the parallel universe with the Doctor's clone... Their life, their adventures, and their romance-
1. Chapter 1: The Parting of the Ways

**Hello. As this is my first Doctor Who story, I thought I'd add an Author's Note... So. Voila. I won't bother saying _I don't own Doctor Who, blah blah blah_ because obviously I don't own Doctor Who. Why the hell would I be writing FANFICTION if I owned Doctor Who?**

Rose wept as the TARDIS engines roared. The sound was so familiar, but she had never heard them deserting her before. She had heard them taking her away from danger, returning to her, and taking her to adventure. Never leaving her behind like they were now.

She felt tricked. Tricked and betrayed. He left her there, standing on a beach, just as he had before. But then it hadn't been his fault. Now it was. Now, she could blame him. He had stepped into that TARDIS and turned on those engines knowing that it meant he would probably never see her again, unless someone else came along and started to tear down the walls of the universe.

He was so cute when he said that... the walls of the universe... that expression, furrowed eyebrows, pursed lips, wide, dark eyes.

No. She was mad at him.

Before, when he had sent her home in the TARDIS when the Daleks where attacking, before he'd... died, changed, regenerated... all she'd had to do was look into the Time Vortex and tell it where she wanted to go. She had had Mickey and Jackie to help her then. Now, she'd lost Mickey. She still had Mum, but Mum had Dad and Tony to look after.

Plus, she didn't have a TARDIS with a Time Vortex to look into. Not yet anyway. And there, she'd heard it. Just like before, when she'd almost been sucked into the Void, but Dad had saved her.

The faint popping noise of the parallel universe being sealed off.

He was gone, for good this time.

Rose felt a hand in hers. She looked up into the eyes of the Un-Doctor. He stared back. The same face. The same expression. The same memories, the Real Doctor had said. The same memories...

She's asked then what he had been going to say that day, on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay, on that very spot, so long ago. He'd told her. She'd kissed him, the Un-Doctor. The Doctor had left her. But still...

The Un-Doctor- no, Rose told herself, he's all the Doctor I've got left. The Doctor blinked at her.

She kissed him. As she did, she remembered something else the other Doctor had told her: "He needs you." Rose settled into the Doctor's arms and he eagerly wrapped his arms around her. Behind them, Jackie said angrily, "Doctor, or whoever you are, don't you get to bold, that's still my daughter there, even if you aren't all Time Lord!"

"Oi," the Doctor snapped. "Give us a mo', alright?" He paused. "Oh no, I sound like Donna!"

Rose just laughed and threw her arms around him to hug him. "I missed you," she whispered into his chest. "And what did Martha mean, on that camera thing, with the Osterhagen Key, 'You finally found her?' Were you looking for me?" She tried not to sound to hopeful, but she couldn't help the happy squeak in her voice.

"Well, sort of," the Doctor said, squinching up his face and wobbling his head from side to side, in such a familiar motion that Rose almost began to cry again. The Doctor looked at her. "Well, yeah. I was." He wiped a tear away from her cheek.

The Doctor looked at her for a minute. "It's weird having this new body. According to my memories, it's the same feeling as regeneration. New body, new stuff to get used to. But I have the memories of being in this body, I know what it feels like. But it's different getting used to a body and remembering getting used to the body. It's like you humans learning to drive out of a book and then taking your exams! Silly humans, brilliant, but silly-"

He broke off and his mouth opened and closed. "No, wait, no... NO! AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! I'm part human! EUGH! Disgusting! I'm one of you little- YEUCH!" He did a little dance, shaking his hands and jumping on one foot, shaking the other. Rose had to laugh. "Oh, Doctor!" she cried, taking his hand. "You're sort of the same..."

"Only sort of," the Doctor said. "Only a bit." He looked at her seriously. "I can remember how he-I-he was when you-we-aaaaah- first met. And I can remember how much you changed and helped me-him-ugh. I give up. But I do need you, Rose. And maybe once this little TARDIS seed grows, we can have adventures together and we can help each other and the rest of the world too, just like we used to."

"Yeah," said Rose, feeling truly happy for the first time since... since she hugged the Doctor after he regenerated back into himself. Before that, when she saw him down the street before the Dalek shot him, running towards her with that smile on his face. "I like the sound of that."

Hand in hand, Rose and the Doctor walked down the beach, following Jackie's tracks, towards the figure in the distance talking on the mobile phone, stalking off to the main road.

Behind them, the prints in the sand from the TARDIS were slowly fading away, sinking into the flat surface of plain wet sand.


	2. Chapter 2: Blimp

"So." One word only, but it filled the taxi. Rose glanced towards Jackie and the Doctor, sensing her movement, followed suit. He was pleased, sitting in the back seat next to Rose, where Jackie could not see him unless she craned her neck around, which apparently, she did not want to do.

"So," repeated Jackie, her voice stony.

"So," repeated Rose. Both Rose and the Doctor looked expectantly toward Jackie. She became defensive. "Well, what now? Doctor, or whoever you are, are you going to travel the universe and fly away with Rose again or what? Remember, last time you promised you'd keep her safe, and she ended up almost being sucked into the Void with a bunch of Dalek-thingies and Cybermen! Obviously, that didn't go so well." She craned her neck around to glare at the Doctor.

"Yeah, well," he said defensively. "She's fine though. I mean, she's alive." He winced as Rose poked him in the ribs. "Fine maybe, but a little worse for wear after several years in a parallel universe without you," she scolded.

The Doctor grimaced and peered out the window, pretending not to notice.

Jackie turned back around and asked the driver in an angry tone if the cab couldn't go any faster...

It could, so they sped along in a very loud silence, which was broken only by the occasional huff from Jackie, sigh from Rose, and fidget from the Doctor. Finally, after what seemed to Rose like days of green scenery blurs and merely like the few hours of Norwegian forest that it was to the Doctor, never mind the boredom of time passing slowly, the cabbie pulled up at the small Norwegian airport and with a relieved expressions, hustled them out of his taxi. Rose turned away for a second, carefully fishing something out of her shirt. She handed him a card which he scanned with a device built into the dashboard. When he handed it back to her, Rose stowed it quickly in her bra.

"Not exactly an inconspicuous place to keep your... what was that card?" asked the Doctor.

"Torchwood," replied Rose, casually. "It's a Torchwood card. My ID, I guess you'd say. I can use it to charge money, get into top secret government facilities, and keep in touch with Torchwood at local phone booths."

"So... You're part of Torchwood now then?" the Doctor asked, still unsure of what she was saying. "A member? An employee" An adviser? A correspondent?"

"I dunno. I never really thought about it."

The Doctor sighed. _No, I suppose not,_ he thought gloomily. _But there's a Torchwood everywhere._

"Just before I left, there was a Universal Mauve Alert, so we might be in time for that, unless the Doctor- the other Doctor, I mean- got us back late."

"Mauve?"

"Yeah." Rose gave him a saucy look. "Universally recognized color for danger." Unconsciously, the Doctor began to hum Moonlight Serenade.

Rose smiled. The Doctor caught the smile and grinned back.

"Do you still like bananas?" asked Rose.

"Oh yes," said the Doctor decidedly. "Good source of potassium."

"What's all this with bananas, anyway?" asked Jackie, testily. "Every party she went to, mind you, it wasn't all that many-"

"Mum," interrupted Rose, shushing her mother.

"-Every party," continued Jackie, "she always brought a banana! I always thought, 'it must be something to do with the Doctor,' I always knew it. Like how she always looks sad when she tells little Tony not to wander off. And-"

"Mum!"

"-How she wears a trench coat sometimes, and that time she spent weeks walking around London looking for a Police Box, just to give it a hug and turn around and le-"

"MUM!" snapped Rose, turning away, blushing furiously.

Jackie pulled out her phone and walked pointedly away, leaving Rose and the Doctor enough space to talk properly in private. The Doctor stepped closer to Rose. He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his chest. She hid her face in his shirt and he felt her sigh. "You know," he said quietly into her hair, "He- I- Well, he kept all your clothing. He left your bedroom exactly the way you left it. Clothes in the closet, bed un-made-" Rose blushed- "And he even left your, herm, undergarments on the floor." Rose blushed harder. "And," the Doctor leaned in closer to her ear, so close that he could smell the cherry blossom shampoo she'd always used and the soapy detergent scent of her shirt, and continued, "He even slept in your bed for weeks after you... were gone."

Rose pulled away and without hesitation, she kissed the Doctor on the lips. He felt the soft warmth of her mouth on his and leaned his head down, pressing her into his body.

"Hey, you two! Blimp's here!" Jackie's voice broke through their embrace. They broke apart reluctantly and the Doctor looked up to see a huge aircraft in the sky. He heard the engines roaring, but only then did he realize that he had been hearing them for five minutes already. He smile: becoming half human hadn't affected his Time Lord hearing.

As they approached the gang plank, the Doctor smiled again. This universe was just like he had left. Well, almost. A Mauve Alert was nothing to be sneezed at. He boarded ahead of Rose and Jackie and as he stepped aboard, he heard Rose telling Jackie, "It's called a Zeppelin, mum, not a blimp..."


	3. Chapter 3: Apologies

Rose left her mum at the door to their cabin and snuck down the hall. The Doctor had gone into his room and shut the door. She didn't think he was quite adjusted to the whole half human thing. She put an ear to the door and heard nothing. She rapped on the door with her knuckles and called softly, "Doctor? You okay?"

Silence.

Doctor?" There was still no reply.

"Doctor? Alright, I'm just gonna leave, okay? I'll be in my cabin..." She turned and shuffled back across the hall, but before her hand had touched the door know, she heard the Doctor's door click unlocked.

Rose halted in her tracks.

Softly, she padded back across the hall to his door. The dark wood paneling felt cold under her palm when she placed it on the door, almost hoping she would feel his warmth through it. Almost as though she could sense him, feel his presence, hear his two heartbeats. No. Only one now, that would be hard to get used to. For her even.

She blinked back tears. She wasn't used to having him back.

The door knob turned easily under her hand. The door swung open to reveal the Doctor seated on the bed, his head in his hands. Rose paused in the doorway and wondered briefly what she should do. For a moment, she considered leaving, but no...

Tentatively, she stepped forward. "Doctor? What's wrong?"

He didn't answer for a few minutes, just sat there looking small and sad.

"Are you alright?" _That was a stupid question_, thought Rose. _Why the hell did you ask that?_ "Of course you're not," she answered herself. "So what is it?"

The Doctor finally looked up. "I don't know how you people cope... With your silly strange little minds. All these mood swing! I think I understand why everyone I've ever traveled with had those moments when they'd go berserk." He stared up at Rose. "Why am I so sad? Why do I feel like I'm alone, like I don't belong?"

"Apart from the obvious answer, 'You don't'?" asked Rose and immediately regretted it. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean that. You do belong, well mostly. And you're not alone. Obviously, you have _me_."

The Doctor looked un-convinced.

"You know what I think? I think you," Rose pointed playfully at the Doctor, "are suffering from TARDIS Separation Anxiety. You're not used to being stuck on a planet indefinitely and literally without transport! Apart from that seed of course." They both considered the seed on the Doctor's bed for a moment. "How long did you say it would take to grow again?"

"I didn't." He didn't continue.

"So?" Rose prompted. "How long?"

"Two years," the Doctor replied.

"Oh, well. That's not too bad," said Rose, disappointed.

"Well, more like one. I've had this one growing in the TARDIS for a long time. Just in case. I've got a whole nursery in there! Or rather, he has. And this may have been the only one still living. I think some of them got a bit scrambled up in Cardiff with that Slytheen..." He trailed off, glancing back at Rose, who was shifting her weight from one foot to the other nervously.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just..." Rose wondered why everyone always said nothing, then continued to talk. "Since then, since I left, how many people have you traveled with? Five? Ten? How easy was it to forget me?" Rose's voice got higher as she got more upset. "Well, Doctor? How many?"

"No," he began, but she cut him off.

"I met Martha, and I met Donna, but how many others were there?"

"NONE!"

Rose fell silent.

"Just them, no others... And they weren't like you, Rose. I never... Martha, she loved me, I think, but I couldn't. Not after you. With Donna, it wasn't like that at all. We were friends, that's all. Good friends. With Martha, it got complicated." The Doctor looked down at the pair of Converse high tops that the other Doctor had given him from the TARDIS wardrobe. He scuffed them clumsily along the floor.

"No others..." Rose repeated softly. Then louder, "No others!"

In a flash, she was on the bed next to the Doctor, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder.

"I'm sorry." She whispered the words into the material of his suit. He barely heard them, bit he knew he had. Just a whisper, just two whispered words...

"No. I'm sorry. You have every right to be angry with me, I know how it looks," the Doctor murmured into her mussed, dirty blond hair.

"I'm sorry I let go."

"You couldn't help it."

"I'm sorry I yelled."

"I'm glad you did."

There was brief pause. Then, "I'm not sorry I trusted you."

Then another pause. "I'm not sorry either."

Rose looked up from his shoulder to see him looking down from above it. Their eyes met and in unison they said, "Good."

They sat for hours on his bed, one of his arms around her shoulders, one of hers around his waist. She rested her head on his shoulder, staring at his knee. One of her hands lay on his thigh.

The Doctor's mind went in lazy circles. He didn't feel tired, not yet, but he might. He was half human now, after all...


	4. Chapter 4: Sweetheart

**Author's Note: More The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances references! *smug smile***

"Why did they give us rooms? It's not even an over-night trip!"

Rose roused herself, angling her neck back to look up into the Doctor's peeved face. "I mean really? How much extra space do these rooms take up? This thing is bloody huge!" He wondered how long it would take for him to get used to things being the same size on the inside as they were on the outside.

"Dunno," Rose yawned. "Does it matter?"

"What I to know is," said Jackie, poking her head around the door, "Do they charge extra for rooms? Or is that part of the ticket charge?" She paused. "If they do charge extra, then they're slimy, bottom-feeding scum. But if they just include it in the ticket, it's a pretty good deal. I like it. Nice towels." She fluffed her damp hair.

Trust Jackie to take a shower when it was free.

"Nice shampoo, too." She left the door open behind her, moving down the corridor. "By the way, we're there."

The Doctor already knew that. Obviously, he hadn't been sleeping, not even dosing. He hadn't even been listening to the engines or doing anything productive. He had been focusing very hard on the place where Rose's head rested on his chest. Through his suit, he could feel her ear. He could almost feel the flow of her blood and the beat of her heart. Almost. But then again, it wasn't like he could feel that to begin with.

"Alright," Rose sighed, removing her arms reluctantly from the Doctor's midriff. She stretched. "How long's it been?" Oh how he had missed her voice, with it's accent that seemed to get stronger and stronger, the farther she got from her home.

"Yeah, let's get moving." The Doctor's chest mourned the loss of Rose's head.

"Hurry up, you two!" Jackie shrilled from the hall.

"Coming, mum,"Rose shouted around the open door. "I swear, she's worse now than ever. You'd think that what with Dad around she'd let up a little, and with Tony, she'd forget about me sometimes, but no!"

"How is Tony?"

"Oh, fine. He's adorable. I used to wish someday he'd meet you, and now he will!"

"Yeah. Well, sort of. Well, not really. Well, technically no."

"Huh." Rose poked him gently in the side. He giggled and leaned away. "Are you ticklish?" asked Rose amazed. "I never knew!"

"Neither did I! I guess Donna must be..." He dodged another tickle from Rose.

A small blue car, very unlike the boxy van the Tylers and Mickey had driven when Rose had heard the Doctor calling, so long ago, was waiting for them.

Pete Tyler climbed out and made straight for Jackie.

"Sweetheart!" It was said in unison. Jackie and Pete squeezed each other close and tight. _I did that,_ the Doctor thought smugly, a little too pleased with himself.

"What're you beaming away like you're Father Christmas?" Rose smiled. She could picture him in his leather jacket and with his smile- his _old_ smile- after they first met Jack.

"Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?" The Doctor echoed her thoughts, and she knew that they'd both been remembering the same trip to London in 1941. She knew they were remembering the barrage balloons and the gas masks and Nancy with little Jamie.

The Doctor pulled her against him. He reached into pocket slyly and with a flourish, brought out a piece of red, white, and blue cloth.

"You didn't!" squealed Rose, grabbing the Union Jack t-shirt and pulling away to hold it out in front of her. She danced on her toes, crying, "Oh yes! I loved this t-shirt!" She turned to face the Doctor. "Thank you."

"I had a helluva time getting him to give it up. He clung onto it like a barnacle. But finally, I think he agreed for your sake."

"Ohhhhh," sighed Rose. "I loved this shirt. So did Jack, he said so, sitting on that bomb like he was having the time of his life. You, as I recall, weren't so sure about it." She glared accusingly at the Doctor, who looked away innocently. "I seem to recall you asking me if I was sure about it."

"Hmmm," hmmm-ed the Doctor noncommittally. "I thought you looked brilliant in it." He grinned at her with that wide smile of his that had always made all her troubles go away. Rose smiled back at him and reached for him, pulling him towards her by his shoulders.

She smiled into his shoulder and laughed.

"Oi! You two! Do I have to keep reminding you I exist?" It was Jackie of course. Who else?

Pete held out a hand to the Doctor. "It's good to see you again, Doctor," he said as they shook.

"Yeah," replied the Doctor.

"Let's go," said Jackie. "I miss Tony."

"He missed you two, sweetheart," smiled Pete. "So did I."

**Woohoo! I finally typed that up... I always write things out (just a habit) and I've had that written for a very, VERY long time.**


	5. Chapter 5: Stories

**A/N: Hey, you guys... I'm reeeeally sorry, I know, it's been two months. I feel really bad. My poor little fanfiction must have thought I abandoned it. Well, mommy's home now. I know there's really no excuse for not updating for two months, but it could have been worse, right? I _did_ have an excuse for two weeks of that, though, I was gone, but the rest of it... Eh.**

**Anyway, let the update commence! By the way, there's a hidden The Girl in the Fireplace reference :D**

The Tyler's parallel universe house was small, not unlike the flat in London, but situated in the countryside, not so near the city to be in it, but not so far away that it would prove to be inconvenient. The house was light blue with white trim. It was... homey. There was a whitewashed fence around the green grass yard. In the window, a little boy sat in the arms of a girl about 12 years old who pointed and waved. The boy flapped his arms and smiled at the group of four people on the lawn.

Jackie smiled back, hurrying up the path to the door. It opened to reveal the girl holding Tony, who smiled in pleasure when he saw his mother. "Tony sweetheart," cried Jackie, reaching for him. "Mummy's home now!"

"Hello, Susan," said Rose to the girl.

"Hi, Rose," grinned Susan. She turned to the Doctor. "You must be the Doctor..." Seeing his surprised expression, she continued. "Rose used to babysit me. She told me stories about you before I went to sleep. She told me all about your adventures and the people you met and the things you did. I always thought they were just stories, like when people have imaginary friends, until the stars started going out. Then we all knew it was real, all of it."

The Doctor glanced at Rose, who blushed slightly and looked away. He reached for her hand. "Yeah, I'm the Doctor. And we did do all those things, Rose and I."

"All of it?" asked Susan eagerly. "Even the Slytheen from Raxacoricofallapatorius?"

The Doctor blinked and stared. "It was my favorite story," admitted Susan. "I always asked for that one."

The slow smile that always ended so brilliantly spread across the Doctor's face. Rose could have watched that smile forever. "I must have told that one thirty times," Rose said quietly, still watching the Doctor's face.

He looked down at her the smile faded. Not in a bad way, not as though he wasn't happy anymore, but his eyes gained an intense look that Rose couldn't interpret.

There was a rustling as Pete took out his wallet to pay Susan. "Thank you, Susan," said Jackie. "We really appreciate it." She smiled warmly and, lifting one of Tony's small chubby arms, waved it saying, "Say goodbye Tony! Wave bye bye to Susan."

Tony waved.

Susan walked down the steps and set off down the road in the direction of the nearest house.

The night was star-filled and full of the sound of crickets.

"I made them move out here for the stars, you know," said Rose, gesturing to the sky with her free hand. With the other, she held the Doctor's hand. "Before they started going out... The stars I mean." She smiled. "It's so beautiful, just seeing them back again."

The Doctor said nothing, just stared up at the dark night sky.

"You miss it already, don't you?" whispered Rose. "You miss being up there in your TARDIS. You miss being able to open the door and see it rushing past. You miss knowing that one minute you can be here, the next, out there on one of those planets we can't even see because it's so far away. You miss being among the stars."

"We're always among the stars, Rose Tyler. But yes, I miss it."

They lapsed once more into silence and sat looking at the stars, listening to the music of the crickets.

It took a grand total of two days to realize that the Tyler household could not hold the four Tylers and the Doctor. And so it was decided that Rose and the Doctor and Gallifrey (Rose's grey tabby cat) would move into a cottage just three miles down the road. And that they would take the two old bicycles that had been sitting in the shed apparently since the stone age (though the Doctor insisted that they didn't have rubber treat technology back then), because Jackie decreed that every Saturday night was Dinner with the Family Night.

The cottage was "small but comfortable," as Jackie put it. It was "small but not too cramped," as Pete put it. It was "small but sort of... quaint," as Rose put it.

But certainly the least descriptive yet most physically accurate description came courtesy or the Doctor: It was "small, and just as small on the inside."

Granted, it wasn't as small as the Police Box TARDIS, but it was certainly as small on the inside as it was on the outside. There were four rooms: a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room of sorts, and a bedroom. Everything was in pastel colors. The outside was lavender, the linoleum in the kitchen was yellow and the cabinets were green. The walls were also yellow, except in the bathroom, where they were blue, and the bathroom, where they were pink.

"The kitchen looks like one of those gifts you give someone who's expecting but you don't know whether it's a girl or a boy," said the Doctor, peevishly.

"You sound like Donna," admonished Rose. "I think it's kind of cute, actually." The Doctor hmmm-ed his disagreement.

The Doctor wanted to paint the front door blue like the TARDIS, but Rose wouldn't let him. "It would clash awfully with the lavender, maybe if we re-paint the rest of the house, we can make it work." So they painted the gate instead. And then the shed that stood in the corner. And then all the flowerpots (Pete's idea).

The Doctor planted his TARDIS seed in the front garden.

They watered it every day.

And they waited.

**A/N: Sorry, it wasn't much of a chapter. It certainly wasn't much of an apology for my prolonged period of neglect *wince* I'll make it a quicker update next time, guys! **


	6. Chapter 6: Cat

**A/N: Well, I mean, it was a quicker update as in not 2 months, but still a while, I know. Sorry. I am particularly proud of this chapter, hope you like it 3**

Gallifrey meowed plaintively.

The Doctor meowed back.

Gallifrey looked at him suspiciously. _Obviously this man in pinstripes and sneakers must be bonkers,_ thought Gallifrey. _Doesn't he know that you can't _see_ plants grow? Doesn't he know that they don't grow that quickly?_ Questioningly, he padded over to the TARDIS sprout and sniffed.

"That, Gallifrey," the Doctor explained, "Is a TARDIS. And it's growing. Someday it will be a fully-grown TARDIS and we can fly away in it."

Gallifrey meowed _By _we_ do you mean the three of us or will you and Lovely fly away and leave me here to eat rats till the end of my days__?_

"By 'we' I mean all three of us, and since when do you call Rose 'Lovely' – " The Doctor broke off. He and Gallifrey stared at each other.

"ROSE!" yelled the Doctor. "ROSE, IT'S WORKING!"

A person on the road stopped to stare at the mad man in pinstripes and the young blond woman and the grey cat dancing around the yard. "It's translating Cat!" the man yelled. "It's working, it really is!" yelled the woman. _This is so_ _AWESOME!_ yelled the cat. At this point, the person formerly walking down the lane became the person running down the lane while assessing themselves for signs of intoxication and being concussed.

Rose knelt by the TARDIS sprout. "You're working," she laughed. She turned to Gallifrey and picked him up, cuddling him in her arms. Gallifrey shot a smug glance at a jealous Doctor and said, _She loves me best._

"She does not!" yelled the Doctor, diving in for a hug.

Laughing, Rose hugged them both.

"You know," the Doctor told her, "Gallifrey doesn't call you 'Rose.' He calls you 'Lovely'."

"Really?" Rose gasped, blushing.

Gallifrey purred, which apparently didn't translate as anything. _Yes. Lovely, Center of the Universe, Supreme Being, Queen of All Things, Bringer of Food, Cleaner of Sandbox –_

"Now you're just being silly," Rose told him, tickling his stomach.

After a few minutes of silence and staring at the sprout, Rose asked, "Doctor, what's wrong?"

The Doctor, who had been looking a bit pensive, said, "Nothing" automatically, before sighing and saying, "It's just, Gallifrey has a special name for you. A nickname. And I don't have one. I just call you 'Rose'."

"Is _that_ what you're so gloomy about?"

The Doctor said nothing.

"You don't need to have a special name for me," Rose whispered, setting Gallifrey down so she could put an arm around the Doctor. "You just have to say my name and my heart starts racing. I can still barely believe that you're really here."

"But I'm not."

"Whaddyou mean?"

"_I_'m not actually here. I'm a biological metacrisis version of the Doctor. I'm not the Doctor you know."

"But you don't have to be. You're you. You're part of the Doctor and part of Donna, and that makes you your own person. You don't have to be the Doctor. I loved him, and I love you too."

The Doctor rested his head on Rose's shoulder and sighed deeply. She rested her head on his and reached another arm around him. Gallifrey, deciding not to be left out, slunk onto the Doctor's lap without a word.

The remained that way until dark and until rain began to fall.

And then they went inside an fell asleep on the bed after dinner, still fully clothed, still slightly damp, Rose with her head on the Doctor's shoulder, the Doctor with his arm around her, Gallifrey on the pillow above their heads.

Outside rain fell on the TARDIS sprout as it _grew_.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! I don't know how much longer this story will last, but we shall see. Review? Please?**


End file.
